The Will of the Triune God
John 17:24–26,
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
One of the great blessings of my life is that I grew up in a Christian home. My mom and dad were always part of a church that preached the Bible, and I had no choice but to go. That was just the way it was — and there was a time there, when I was in high school, when I was not thrilled by this.
I still had to show up and check the boxes — I was always at the things — but spiritually I was in the ‘far country.’ It was a dark season of my life, but looking back, even then, one topic that always intrigued me was the will of God.
Because I was at least a theist — I believed God existed.
And I knew that if he existed, he must have a will — God wants something from me — And I figured if that’s true I should try to find out what that is! I should try to figure out what God wants from me.
Except that felt super complicated, because my impression of the will of God was that it was like a mysterious bull’s eye out there that I’m supposed to always aim for, and, at best, I might land somewhere on the board.
And I allowed that confusion about the will of God to be an excuse for my apathy. Maybe that’s you today … you’re here, so that means something — you’re at least a little bit interested in the will of God — but if you’re honest, you’re really just showing up today, you’re taking shots in the dark, going through the motions. You would like to know: What does God really want from me?
Three Powerful Words
And this morning I want to start by showing you three powerful words in this passage. It’s actually the first three words of verse 24. John 17:24, Jesus says:
“Father, I desire …”
That word for desire means to will — it’s the expression of one’s will.
Which means: in verse 24 we’re about to read God the Son telling God the Father what his will is.
And, as we’ve seen in the Gospel of John, the Father and the Son are in perfect harmony. The Son only wants what the Father wants. He does what the Father says. So in telling the Father what he wills, Jesus is repeating what the Father himself wills.
When Jesus says, “Father, I desire,” he is expressing the will of the Triune God.
Is anybody interested to know the will of the Triune God for us? … We don’t have to guess anymore. We’re not in the dark anymore.
Jesus is about to tell us the will of the triune God.
The first thing he shows us is this:
1. The will of the triune God is that we be with him.
This is verse 24, right away:
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am …”
And this is not the first time Jesus has said this. Remember back in Chapter 14, verse 2, Jesus encouraged his disciples that he’s leaving here to go and prepare a place for them. He said, verse 2:
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Jesus wants his people to be with him — that’s what he’s been up to.
That’s the goal of his leaving. That’s his desire in Chapter 17.
But then when we zoom out, we can see that this is actually the will of God since the very beginning.
One of my favorite summaries of the Old Testament is to say that it’s a story about “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.”
That’s what God is doing. And we see that right away in the Garden of Eden.
So we’re gonna do a little Bible survey for a minute. Hang with me:
Starting in Genesis, what was the Garden of Eden?
Think about it: Eden was “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.” That was Adam and Eve for at least a minute, but then they sinned and God exiled them from Eden.
And in Genesis 3:15 God promised to send a Redeemer — a son would come to crush the head of the serpent!
And this Son would ultimately restore “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.”
That’s what the Exodus was for … remember God told Moses, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God…” (Exodus 6:7). This God with his people — That’s what the tabernacle was for … That’s what the temple in Jerusalem was for … The whole thing is God moving his people back to Eden … back to his place, under his rule and blessing.
The problem, though, is the people themselves. Their sin was too corrosive. Their hearts were too hardened. So God makes a new covenant!
He will put a new heart in his people, by his Spirit — and in the fullness of time, he sent Jesus as the minister of that New Covenant. So see how this fits! The goal is God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing, and Jesus came as the embodiment of that — Jesus himself is the place of God — he’s the new temple.
The Father gives Jesus authority — he rules and blesses. Jesus becomes the substitute for his people — he bears our sins and imputes to us his righteousness — Jesus does this so that God has his people in his place under his rule and blessing!
That’s why Jesus came here, that’s what Jesus has gone to prepare, and that’s what Jesus is bringing back when he returns! So when Jesus says, “I desire that they be with me where I am,” he really means it! This is not a sentiment. This is the will of the triune God.
The will of the triune God is that we be with him.
2. The will of the triune God is that we see his glory.
In verse 24, this is the second part of Jesus’s desire, or will. I desire that they may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundations of the world.”
And again, Jesus has already mentioned something like this before. Back in verse 5 of this prayer, he said “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
So if we put these together, Jesus has had glory before anything ever existed outside himself. When all there was was God himself — Father, Son, and Spirit — the Son had glory (and it had something to do with the Father’s love for him).
And Jesus wants us to be with him to see that glory.
And this makes at least one thing become clear: It’s that God is the gospel.
In other words, God is what makes heaven heaven. This is important because we already know that Jesus wants us to be with him, but the next question is Why? Why does Jesus want us to be with him where he is?
Another way to ask it is: What is the purpose of heaven?
Or have you ever wondered: Is your purpose in wanting heaven the same as Jesus’s purpose in making heaven?
I’ve never heard a more soul-penetrating question than this.
This is one of those thought-experiments that just lays everything bare. As one writer puts it:
If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters [— if you could have all these things in heaven, but did not have Christ, could you be satisfied?] (see Piper, God Is the Gospel, 15).
Is it Jesus that makes heaven worth wanting for you? Or is it all the amenities?
Because Jesus does not mention any amenities in verse 24.
He says he wants us be in heaven to see him. That’s his purpose.
And look, it’s hard to imagine that if Jesus is not precious to you on this side of heaven, that he would suddenly become precious to you in heaven.
Now, without doubt, Jesus will be more precious to us in heaven than he is now because we’re gonna fully see him.
Now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face … unhindered by sin, with new capacities. We will see his glory more radiant than the sun! But the longing for that has to start here. That’s what conversion is.
Conversion is when God opens your eyes to see Jesus as glorious — not just useful; not just helpful; but glorious.
Jesus came to live and die and be raised from the dead to save you to give himself to you — so that you would want to see him.
The will of the triune God is that we see his glory — and that may not sound compelling to you right now, but it’s what you were made for.
Seeing this glory is the deepest and truest longing of your soul.
This is #3 …
3. The will of the triune God is that we share in his joy.
Start in verse 25:
“O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known…
Jesus here is referring to the active ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is still making the God known to us, by his Spirit through his Word. But why? That’s verse 26:
I will continue to make your name known [so that] the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
This is nosebleed altitude, okay. Hang with me. Let me restate verse 26: Jesus is saying that he wants the love that God the Father has for God the Son to be in us. And this love in us is like Jesus being in us.
And in verse 24, Jesus says that this love — the love the Father has had for the Son before the world existed — this love is the ‘foundation’ of Jesus’s glory that he wants us to see.
So, put it together:
Jesus wants us to see his glory — glory that is grounded in the Father’s love for him — And then he wants to share that love with us.
GLORY because of LOVE, and then HERE!
And I’m calling all of that one word: JOY!
The triune God wants us to share in his joy!
Now how am I making that connection?
It’s because joy is what describes that experience of glory and love within the Trinity. Jesus has always had his glory — It’s glory from before the foundation of the world.
He has always been the visible manifestation of the Triune God’s perfections!
When the Father has looked at the Son, that’s what he has seen.
The Father has seen in his Son the mirror of his own worth reflecting out — And that sight makes the Father very happy! It makes him infinitely, inexhaustibly, very happy! And if we will see what the Father sees, we will be happy too, forever.
Historically, this doctrine has been called the Beatific Vision.
It’s the promise that one day, we as Christians — as those whom the Father has given to the Son — one day we will see the glory of the triune God in the face of Jesus Christ, and we will experience his joy forever.
“In your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
And to every human in this room, you were made for that.
Your every desire is pointing there.
Your every hardship will only make it sweeter.
I want you to know that God’s ultimate will for you is NOT really about what he wants from you, it’s about what he wants for you.
That’s the part I didn’t understand when I used to be so intrigued and confused by the will of God. I went through all the motions, but I could never have dreamed back then that God’s ultimate will for me is actually to satisfy my ultimate desire.
That’s what Jesus is telling us. He wants us to share in his joy. That’s the will of the triune God.
The question is: Will you receive it?
To Three Types
I’d like to close by doing something I don’t normally do, but I want to speak directly to three different types of people in the room …
First, if you’re here and you’re not a Christian, become one. Today is the day. Right now, turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ.
Second, if you are a Christian but it feels like you’ve been living in the dark, ask for God to shine in your heart again and to open your eyes anew to the glory of Jesus and our hope in him. Seek personal revival. God can give it.
And then third, if you’re a Christian but you feel especially distractible in these days (and so many of us are here, including me). Listen: I am calling us to lock-in on what is ultimate.
That does not mean that we ignore our challenges. We don’t. We want to be faithful in them. But we get there by keeping the big picture in view: God is God. Jesus is real. And he tells us what he wants for us.
To be with him, to see his glory, to share in his joy — this is the will of the Triune God for us. And it’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
At this Table, we remember what Jesus has done for us: He came to live and die and be raised from the dead to save us … to give himself to us … so that one day we would see him.
And as we take the bread and cup, we are rejoicing in him and in that hope, which is why this is a meal for Christians. If you’re here and you’ve put your faith in Jesus, let’s give him thanks together.
